#MarinaBudovsky

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : Coraline (2009)

When it comes to animated Halloween fare, I know the overwhelming majority lean towards The Nightmare Before Christmas, and believe me, I can understand why.  When it comes to me, however, I have a different film that I gravitate to when I need my scary animated fix, and that film is Coraline. 

Coraline (Dakota Fanning), along with her Mother (Teri Hatcher) and Father (John Hodgman), are settling into the Pink Palace Apartments, their new home in Oregon after relocating from Michigan.  Coraline is fascinated by her new strange surroundings, as both the house and her neighbors seem full of intrigue, including Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders), Miss Forcible (Dawn French), and the young and odd Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), who gifts Coraline with a button-eyed doll that looks strangely similar to her.  Things get stranger when Coraline discovers a secret door in her home that leads her to the Other World, where she encounters Other versions of her parents that she is strangely attracted to despite their button eyes and underlying scariness.  As Coraline repeatedly explores the Other World, occurrences get stranger and stranger, and her neighbors begin to warn her that her actions may put her and everyone else in danger.  Despite the warnings, Coraline continues to explore, eventually leading her square into the middle of a battle for control of both worlds between the Others and the real world.

Coraline is like a psychological thriller made specifically for children to be able to relate to.  The scariness lies partially in visual scares, but the overwhelming fear comes from the mystery of the situation, and an inability to explain it even though you can understand it.  Coraline’s frustrations with her family and the lack of attention they show her manifested into the creation of the Other World, where everything is centered around her to a dangerous degree, making the movie an illustration of the old adage ‘be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it’.  The fact that the movie is based on a Neil Gaiman novel goes a long way towards explaining how the film is able to work on those two seemingly divergent levels.

The way that the story finds fresh ground to illustrate the literal feeling of fear one faces moving into a new, scary place is what locks us in immediately.  The strange location, the oddness of the Pink Palace apartments, and the strange characters that inhabit it are equally compelling and repulsive, which is what keeps Coraline (and us as viewers) hooked.  As we, like Coraline, journey forward with hopes to understand these unfamiliar surroundings, we go from a sense of something mysterious and magical being present to a real fear that a trap has seemingly been sprung.  The discoveries uncovered are much bigger than anticipated... so big, in fact, that they provide a genuine opportunity for heroism.

Lots of symbollic shorthand is used to convey the disturbing concepts connected to the antagonists in the film.  The concept of Other World, Other forms of those you know, and the button/covered eyes all have roots in deeply spiritual cultures and societies.  False realities and mirror dimensions have long been associated with the metaphysical, the mystical and science beyond the comprehension of laymen.  Even the Beldam has roots in folklore, with the old lady that may or may not be a witch being one of the longest-running tropes there is when it comes to spooky-related material.

The meticulous, breathtaking stop-motion animation is the true star of this show.  The eye for extreme detail is ever-present in regards to all aspects : the environment the story resides in (for both worlds, inside and outside), the movement of the human characters, the movement of the animals in the film, and elsewhere.  Certain characters, specifically the original residents of the Pink Palace, all have very distinct and exaggerated movements that, despite their grand nature, still feel natural.  Certain sequences stand out as centerpieces, like the creation of the portal that connects the worlds, the Other garden, Bobinsky’s Mouse Circus, and the Spink & Forcible performances.  If I remember correctly, the making of material stated two facts that I found incredibly interesting : the film was given a traditional (albeit miniaturized) wardrobe department, meaning all costuming was made as standard clothes, and not just amendments to the dolls; and, the entire film was shot once specifically for a screen test prior to the actual production taking place, meaning they did an entire stop-motion film essentially for practice, but ultimately to fine-tune the movements and details.

Dakota Fanning’s voice acting provides us with enough sass, curiosity and youthful determination to make Coraline an unforgettable character in the canon of stop-motion animation characters.  Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman both bring the adult/parental tone of being too busy to fully focus on their kid, but Hatcher provides a sharpness where Hodgman opts for a more deflated feel... both flip these aspects on their head for their Other-counterparts.  Robert Bailey Jr. incorporates just enough shyness and worry into his performance to make Wybie eccentric and emotional in equal measure.  Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French use an ironic formality to counterpart both their appearance and their slapstick-style interactions.  Ian McShane goes broad and over the top for the larger than life Bobinski.  Keith David is obviously channeling all of the fun he is having in the production into his limited performance opportunities voicing The Cat.  Brief vocal appearances by Caroline Crawford, Aanhka Neal, George Selick, Hannah Kaiser, Marina Budovsky and Harry Selick round out the cast.

Many, many people have told me that I need to see ParaNorman due to my love of Coraline, and one of these days I’m sure I will.  Having seen Coraline originally on a big-screen (and in 3-d, no less, which worked quite well), it’s hard to imagine another film taking the place of this one, no matter how good it may be.